


baby, baby, i'm dancing with a stranger

by lazyfish



Series: promptober [15]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Divorce, and Izzy and Idaho, mentions of mack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 21:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21042953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/pseuds/lazyfish
Summary: Bobbi doesn't expect to find her ex-husband in a corn maze; she expects even less for him to feel like a stranger.





	baby, baby, i'm dancing with a stranger

October had given away to a weary November, and the sky was blue for the first time in a long time. Bobbi sighed as she wrapped her scarf a little tighter around her neck. She couldn’t believe Mack had talked her into going to the corn maze with him - and then cancelled on her after she had already bought her ticket. If she didn’t know better, she would think he was scheming. But mack wasn’t the scheming sort - he did, or he didn’t. He probably just got the cold that had been going around S.H.I.E.L.D. since the temperature dropped.

Exploring a corn maze along wasn’t as fun as it would’ve been with someone else, but Bobbi was determined to get her ticket price out of the experience. There were supposedly corncob sculptures scattered around the maze, so she made it her mission to find as many of them as possible.

The problem with being a spy and having training in retracing her steps? It didn’t actually take that long for her to make a mental map of the maze and find all the sculptures. They were nice, especially the bird-shaped one, but nice in the way that made her feel bad for not appreciating them more. Bobbi was… numb. She had been pushing her emotions away even more than usual as of late, and it was beginning to show. 

She shoved her hands deeper into her pockets and scuffed her feet along the dirt paths as she made another circuit through the maze. Left, right, left, left - she was going around in circles, and if that wasn’t an apt metaphor for her thoughts, she didn’t know what was. Bobbi had gotten good at avoiding thoughts of a certain brunette Brit, but in avoiding thinking about him, she didn’t have much else to think about. Even work had become tied up in Hunter, because he had hated it so much.

But the divorce had been necessary. Making herself sad about it wasn’t going to change anything, least of all what had already happened.

“Barb?”

Bobbi whipped around when she heard her name, surprised to see Izzy standing a few dozen feet away. Bobbi shuffled closer, intending to have a conversation. She hadn’t known Izzy was in this neck of the woods. Idaho rounded the corner, and Bobbi’s stomach dropped. Where Izzy and Idaho were…

Hunter looked good. His cheeks weren’t hollow and his eyes weren’t sunken like they had been in the last month of their marriage, when they had both lost too much sleep to be happy. The ghost of a laugh was still on his lips, but when he saw Bobbi, his face contorted into an expression Bobbi recognized. It was the face he always made when he was in pain and wanted to hide it from her.

For a moment all four of them were frozen. Izzy and Idaho moved before she and Hunter did, slipping back around the corner they had came from to give her and her ex-husband some privacy. Hunter hesitated, looking like he was about to go the same way, and Bobbi’s heart tugged.

She didn’t want him to go.

“I like the hair,” Hunter commented after an even longer pause.

Bobbi’s hand flitted to the ends of her hair subconsciously. She had chopped her hair short in a time-tested post-breakup routine.

“I didn’t do it for you,” she said stubbornly. Maybe she had done it  _ because _ of him, but it wasn’t in some effort to show Hunter she had moved on or something to that effect. She should’ve dyed it, too - Hunter preferred her blonde, and being a brunette would scream that she didn’t care what he thought anymore. (Of course, that would be a lie, but Hunter didn’t have to know that.)

“I know you didn’t.” Hunter didn’t roll his eyes but he might as well have, with the tone of his voice. “We did divorce and all.”

He didn’t sound as bitter about it as she would’ve expected, and Bobbi wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or worse. It was complicated, still being in love with her ex-husband, because she wanted him to still love her too, even if they couldn’t be together. 

“Right.” Bobbi paused. There was no way Mack had set this up, right? No, he wouldn’t. He was supportive of her relationship with Hunter ending. He wouldn’t try to get them back together.

Bobbi had a hard time believing in serendipity, though.

“I should…” Hunter gestured over his shoulder to where Izzy and Idaho had disappeared.

For some reason, it was that moment when Bobbi realized she wasn’t looking at her husband anymore. Three months apart, and he was a stranger. She was looking at a stranger with the face of the man she loved, and it smarted even more than the idea of Hunter leaving. 

Pain made her do stupid things.

“I miss you.”

Hunter had never been particularly adept at hiding what he was thinking, and now was now different. He flitted between hope and sadness and anger and pain and a hundred other emotions all chasing each other’s heels, up until he finally managed to school his face into neutrality.

“...You shouldn’t.”

Bobbi had been shot and it had hurt less than those two words. “Why not?”

“Do you want the list alphabetically or chronologically?” Hunter asked, sarcasm dripping off his tongue. “You were the one who ended it, Bob. You know the reasons.”

“None of those were reasons I can’t miss you!” she insisted. Because yes, she had made it quite clear the reasons they couldn’t be together, but she couldn’t stop herself from missing him, or loving him, or doing anything else with him. It just meant they needed space so they wouldn’t implode and take everyone else down with them. It was a fine line to walk, but Bobbi had superb balance.

Hunter sighed. “We can’t do this.” He tipped his head back, looking up at the sky. It had no right to remain as blue as it was when Bobbi suddenly felt so gloomy. She almost wished for a storm to roll in. At least rain would be a good reason for her and Hunter to leave the corn maze, and then she wouldn’t have to admit Hunter was the one who had chased her away. 

Bobbi didn’t need to wonder why he was looking up, though - it was a classic motion to fight back tears.

“We can.” She hated how desperate she sounded.

“But we shouldn’t.”

She hated even more that Hunter had become the sensible one. She hated that their arguments still felt second-nature, the bickering still threaded through with fondness - at least on her end. She couldn’t speak for Hunter, which was part of why this was so challenging. She just wanted to know where they stood. Well, that was a lie. She wanted to know where they stood, and she wanted them to be standing in the same place, just for a little longer. 

“We shouldn’t,” she admitted, shoulders slumping.

She took a step back. Maybe space would make it easier.

He didn’t follow her.

It shouldn’t have been a bad thing, but it still felt that way.

“I love you, Bob,” Hunter said quietly. “But we can’t.”

A love confession in the middle of a corn maze. Lovely. At least they were in a far-off corner, and no one had interrupted them yet. Bobbi suspected Izzy would be back soon to make sure they were both still alive, but other than that, they were alone.

She took another step back. Space wasn’t helping.

He still didn’t follow.

“I love you too.” The words burned at her throat. She didn’t want to say them, but she had promised Hunter she wasn’t going to lie to him. 

Bobbi back-pedaled further before she could hear what more Hunter had to say about this situation. She didn’t want to keep talking to him if she couldn’t  _ have _ him, and she knew trying to change his mind was the wrong thing for both of them. For once he was being the sensible one and she was being the emotional one, and she was beginning to understand why Hunter had always looked so worn towards the end of their marriage. Being the sensible one was difficult, but being the emotional one was  _ exhausting _ .

She didn’t get lost when she went back through her maze, which was a miracle. She also didn’t run into anyone else she knew, which wasn’t a miracle but certainly was a relief. It was only when she had exited the corn maze once and for all that Bobbi felt like she could really breathe again. The conversation had wrapped a vice around her chest and it had squeezed and squeezed and squeezed without her realizing it had been there in the first place.

Maybe she should have fought harder. Maybe she should’ve said her reasons weren’t reasons anymore. She didn’t think Hunter would have a problem with that lie… but she didn’t really know.

She didn’t know, because now the man she loved was a stranger.


End file.
